Northern Hemisphere's weather patterns are being affected by the far-reaching impacts of air pollution drifting in from China and other Asian countries, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested.
Storms above the Pacific Ocean are being strengthened due to pollutants, researchers have found. According to BBC News, this process is impacting weather techniques in other parts of the world.
However, the study stated that the effect was most pronounced during the winter.
"The effects are quite dramatic. The pollution results in thicker and taller clouds and heavier precipitation," lead author Yuan Wang, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, said.
Some of the highest levels of air pollution in the world is originated in parts of Asia, PNAC reported.
"In China's capital, Beijing, pollutants frequently reach hazardous levels, while emissions in the Indian capital, Delhi, also regularly soar above those recommended by the World Health Organization," BBC News reported. "This has dire consequences for the health of those living in these regions, but there is growing evidence that there are other impacts further afield."
A team of researchers from the U.S. and China used computer models to analyze the process of tiny polluting particles blowing towards the north Pacific in order to mix with water droplets in the air.
Following the blend, clouds grow denser, prompting the creation of more intense storms above the ocean, researchers said.
"Since the Pacific storm track is an important component in the global general circulation, the impacts of Asian pollution on the storm track tend to affect the weather patterns of other parts of the world during the wintertime, especially a downstream region [of the track] like North America," Wang said.
Commenting on the study, Professor Ellie Highwood, a climate physicist at the University of Reading, said, "We are becoming increasingly aware that pollution in the atmosphere can have an impact both locally - wherever it is sitting over regions - and it can a remote impact in other parts of the world. This is a good example of that."
Highwood added, "There have also been suggestions that aerosols over the North Atlantic effect storms over the North Atlantic, and that aerosols in the monsoon region over South Asia can affect circulation around the whole of the world," according to BBC News.
